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The collective members learn everything I learn. We teach each other. As I continue to equip and empower them with continuing education and business knowledge, my goal is that these women will continue to grow this project for themselves. I will always be with them, but their strength will allow them to become more and more independent.

Public Health

JUSTA has been conducting a series of Sexual Health workshops with the secondary school of Chacaya. The idea comes from alarming facts as the rate of teenage pregnancy in rural communities, the many cases of pregnancy related deaths, the big number of children in the families and the impact of these situation on the overall health of growing children and mothers. There is an evident need of birth control in the families, however, when it comes to talk about the subject, you step into a wall of cultural and religious beliefs that determine deeply rooted attitudes. There is embarrassment, shame and even guilt, since sex has been historically condemned by religion; it is also known that religion has been recognized as a very important determinant of contraceptive use. Also, chauvinist society has based women´s self-esteem and security on filling the roles of mothers and wives.

Many rural women would like to avoid pregnancy, but they don’t do it due to lack of support from their partners and communities as lack of access to adequate information or services. Family planning is crucial to develop gender equity and a key factor in reducing poverty. If women and couples are well informed and have the resources needed to plan whether or when to have children, they are more enable to complete their studies, their autonomy within their household will increase and their earning capability is improved. This strengthens the family economic security and well-being. These benefits have the cumulative effect of reducing poverty and increasing positive development. [Family Planning, United Nation Population Fund] Knowing this, we wonder why there´s not an active plan included in the government agenda related to family planning.

In the last sessions with the Chacaya secondary school, we focused on giving information about family planning and why it is best to delay the age for becoming parents and space out pregnancies. We discussed pregnancy, health care before and during this period for both parents and how the number of children a woman has through her life, can directly affect the level of life of these children as of the whole family. For the last sessions, guys were more open and participative when it came to giving their opinion or asking questions; though the questions again evidenced very limited knowledge on basic health concepts. Of course, we stepped here into the barrier of religiosity. Supported by the open minded professor in charge of the group, we dared to point out that the decisions in our lives can be made by ourselves and not by the pressure of the community or the church. We had some reactions from students and a little respectful debate was created inside the group around this.

With girls, embarrassment and rejection to talk about sex is a big barrier. Why? Morally acceptable behavior (conditioned of course by religion and culture) play an important role. Chauvinist society has incorporated ideas of sex being dirty and immoral, especially for a woman. The workshop was intended also to be based on the questions presented by the students, so it only really got going when the girls broke through their shyness. Lack of sex education increases these girls´ probabilities to get pregnant really young, to have a non-planned number of children, to risk their health by not receiving adequate information or care and to keep the family caught up in poverty. In order to catch their interest, we argued about the importance of information, of knowing our body, how it functions, how life can be gestated; we tried to make a reflection on the importance of taking care of our bodies, deciding when and how to have an intercourse, and deciding when do we want to get pregnant and how many children we want to have.

At the end of the sessions, a couple of students came to us and said thanks for sharing all this information with them, they said no one talks to them about healthy sex or family planning. I can’t even explain how good it feels to speak so openly with the students. We know that adolescents have the right and the desire to receive clear and accurate information, and we know we’re on the right track.

Following up with the principal of the school later, he considered the whole activity as positive for the students and mentioned how parenthood and family planning were the topics of conversation for many of them during the following weeks. This is a very positive development! The fact that kids are still talking about how family planning has a place in planning their futures is incredibly encouraging. And they feel comfortable talking about this with their teachers!

JUSTA will continue working this and other important health/education topics with the students and teachers in order to increase the impact of the school. We fund these programs with the sales of our Global Just Designs products. You can support our work by shopping in Our Store!

We also collect donations to sponsor at-risk students through a scholarship program. Scholarship students attend the middle school and are invited to all JUSTA workshops. You can contribute to secure the education of one student for the next year, with only $85 you will cover one yearly tuition fee and school supplies. The entire donation is used for school fees and tuition with no overhead. You can donate on our Scholarship Page.

Thanks to Ingrid, Chacayá Program Coordinator, for this thoughtful blog post.

Sexual health is a theme considered taboo in Guatemala and it is not yet included in the education program for schools, though there is a law that guarantees universal access to contraception and reproductive health education. Sexual abuse, unwanted pregnancy and young motherhood are some of the common results from the censor of sexual education in the country.

The main characteristics of Central American states policy on issues like sex education, abortion and contraception, are prohibition, restriction and inaction. Guatemala has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the region, 240 per every 100,000 live births. (UNICEF and UNFP) Premature pregnancy and unsafe abortion are closely related to maternal mortality. Abortion is legally permitted only if a woman’s life is in danger. Our country also has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Latin America; in 2012, there were 61,000 reported teen girls pregnancies, of which 35 were 10 year old girls. (www.ticotimes.net/2014/06/16) Many experts point out the lack of education and healthcare, widespread poverty and sexual violence as the main catalyst behind this rise in teen pregnancy. By the age of 30, many Guatemalan women have already given birth to five to eight children.

JUSTA is conducting a series of sexual health workshops with the secondary school of Chacaya. The objective of these workshops is to bring proper information to the students, to let them know how to keep their bodies healthy and to exercise their rights and responsibilities.

Estimated Chacayá population for 2015 is 1439 habitants. Currently, only 55 students attend the secondary school. In Chacaya secondary, only 27% of the total students are girls. 98% of Chacayá population is evangelical, and there are many evangelical congregations in the community. These churches exert significant influence in Guatemala and it is to be said that this influence is based on their connections with power. Usually the position of a pastor regarding women is that they are subordinate to men and destined to be self-sacrificing mothers. These messages make their way into the mindset of youth and influence how adolescents interact.

Our facilitators for these workshops are Marea Goodman and Luz Vogel from Manos Abiertas, both experienced midwives, strong and open minded women and above all, deeply sensitive to cultural norms and concerned about consequences of the censor of sexual education. They decided to separate boys from girls for working this subject, in order to allow a free and open space, especially for the girls, who barely dare to talk when boys are around and who are usually victims of chauvinist jokes or comments.

Reactions from boys during the first session, as expected, were a lot of murmuring and laughter. Marea and Luz replied with serenity and seriousness, going over the basic concepts, and establishing the three axes around which this session would turn: pleasure, safety and agreement. The meaning of each of these concepts was developed and it was established the need of these three for having healthy sex between two people regardless of when that occurs.

We also focused on the anatomy of male and female reproductive system and similarities and differences and how each of the internal organs function. The students entered the class without much knowledge of how their bodies functioned or how to care for them. Students asked many, many questions by writing them on paper anonymously. Marea and Luz treated each question with respect and dignity and clarified many misconceptions.

Girls entered the course with greater curiosity and interest. They were also shy and embarrassed, but shared some questions out loud rather than writing them down. They presented a lot of direct and formal questions. Many of them were concerned about the process of pregnancy, asking about the situations when a woman can be pregnant and also how to avoid health issues they’ve seen their peers face in pregnancy and parenthood. Most of the girls in the community know they are already destined to become wives and mothers, and only if they are lucky they will find a non-alcoholic or violent man.

Access to contraceptive methods and advice are very limited to adolescents. It is known in the rural area that girls are frequently denied birth control at health centers unless accompanied by a man. The facilitators explained the right use of condoms to the students, thought they are not available in the community.

To educate these adolescents about their sexual and reproductive health and rights could make a difference in their lives. It is our goal to let them know about the options and possibilities they have and hopefully to be able to stop abuses, make better decisions and become more free and happy people.

There is a lot of talk about recycling, about how to use all these plastic bottles, bags and other packaging materials to create something useful or even artistic, giving a value to all the unnecessary packaging, and sometimes with good intention, promoting the consumption of processed food, drinks, personal care products, etc. However, this over-consumption of packaged foods is unsustainable and it is affecting deeply rural communities and society.

In JUSTA, we believe education and proper information are essential to fight against the consumption of junk food and promote healthy eating between young people. This was the issue addressed in a workshop with the students of the Chacaya Secondary Institute. The goal, to let them understand all the negative impacts of the consumption of junk food. For facilitating the activity, we counted on Susana Heisse from Pura Vida, ecological movement that promotes responsible consumption. We discussed the negative effects on their health, the local economy, the planet, and finally on their identity. We talked about the unhealthy ingredients added to junk food, about the money that goes out of Chacaya due to consumption of these and we also calculated the quantity of garbage produced by the packages.

Maya people are known for being “Hombres de Maiz” (the people of corn); this plant has been the base of our food and it´s been considered sacred for millenniums. In the Popol Vuh, the book of Maya Quiché people´s history, it is described how the creator made the people out of corn, after previous trials with wood and mud, which resulted in soulless people and in people that could not stand on their feet. When Maya people plant the Milpa (crop growing system which produces corn, beans and squash), it’s an offering to the Gods – an activity central to spiritual belief. There are four colors of corn seeds representing the four colors of humans, and each variety of corn grows well in the area where it has been sown for centuries. The big multinational companies, as Monsanto, have altered the essence of this sacred plant, adding transgenic elements, finally conceived to monopolize the seeds of our food. The use of transgenic seeds causes contamination of the native seeds, developed through thousands of years of culture. Finally this modified corn is sold in the communities in the form of corn flour and packaged fried snacks, which pretend to substitute the corn mass obtained from local corn ground in the nixtamal (traditional corn Molino). The overabundance of these junk foods and the lack of access to healthier food have increased these communities vulnerability to food related death and disease. 1

There is a strong invasion of processed food in poor communities, the companies have inundated and taken over traditional food channels, with the direct support of governments through the approval of free trade and investment agreements. Like in many rural communities of Guatemala, people in Chacaya don´t have a market to buy vegetables or fruit, but they do have plenty of packaged snacks in the couple of stores that you can find there. They also have many brands of sodas and energetic drinks, even when sometimes they lack safe drinking water. You can see the packages contaminating the town everywhere. The companies find their way to enter to these remote communities but don´t care at all about the garbage left there. Many people in Chacaya don’t speak Spanish but Tzutuj´il language, they cannot understand the ingredients written in the labels, then they don´t know at all what they are putting into their mouth and they are spending their limited resources in buying these products.

We began our responsible consumption workshop playing the game of the store. Some of the students played the role of sellers in a market, and the others played the buyers. Each seller had to convince the buyers of the qualities of his product, with the idea of making contrast between nutritional value and cost. Many students were surprised by the high quantity of sugar contained in the sodas and all the fat and additives contained in fried snacks.

Under the slogan “A better nutrition, less contamination, strong local market”, Susana led the students through some of the historical facts about ancestral Maya nutrition and how “chan”, one of the four basic grains (corn, beans, amaranth and chia) was forbidden during the conquest of América. We took samples of chia and some lemons for the students to take home, the task was to prepare and enjoy a healthy lemonade with chia.

Another star of the day was the “chaya”, used by the ancient Maya people as a dietary staple for centuries, because of its amazing nutritional qualities which gave people the strength they needed for their often harsh work and physically demanding lives. They also recognized chaya as having many medicinal qualities to keep the mind and body strong and healthy. Despite the superfood qualities of this plant, the use of chaya has become largely forgotten and only few people grow and harvest it. For ending the activity, we took many cuttings of chaya and planted them in a corner of the school. We planted aloe vera together with it, to remember also the affordable medicine that can grow in our garden.

JUSTA raises funds for paying the education of students in Chacayá whose families cannot sustain their education. We organize workshops to stimulate these students’ abilities, to open their minds and hopefully to help them make better decisions for their health, their community and the planet.

The community of Chacaya lives on the shores of Lake Atitlan, an enchanting and exceptionally beautiful body of water. Their livelihoods are interlaced with the lake – from transportation (my colleagues rowingtheir kayaks to and from work every day, whatever the weather conditions), fishing, food and tourism. Sadly, as each day creeps into the next, the lake is becoming increasingly contaminated, and causing repeated illnesses among many.

Chacaya is one of the sites for JUSTA’s Comida Vida program. Following Comida Vida’s mission of inspiring healthy living education, creativity, initiative and self worth, we coordinated a clean water workshop with the water filtration organization ECO-FILTROfor Chacaya Middle School. By increasing awareness of our interconnectedness with nature in this youthful generation, we hope to facilitate the development of mindful choices preserving the health of our precious resources and ourselves.

We commenced the afternoon discussing “Que es contaminación de agua?” where the students shared their current conceptions of the health of their lake.

They learned about the cleanliness of the waters they can see from their schoolyard. Studentsreflected on their daily activities of living and how they affect the condition of the lake. They connected common habits to contamination as the students imagined how rainwater washes rubbish from the streets into the lake.

Next, we moved into the negative impacts of consuming contaminated water, by discussing symptoms of various illnesses related to unclean drinking water and asking them to reflect on times they have been ill themselves. The students were asked to form groups and create posters depicting sick and healthy children. This opened the classroom up for a bigger discussion on the longer-term impacts of consuming contaminated water. Our great facilitator, Rosa from Eco-Flitro, explained that when we drink contaminated water we are often sick and cannot attend school, highlighting both the educational and therefore economic impacts for families and society at large.

The worksho gave the students tools and information on how to stop contaminating water, and how to increase awareness of the ways in which they are consuming this water. They answered questions regarding habits in their own household. The exercises were a tangible lesson in applying key healthy messages to their own lives.

Finally, Rosa made an exciting announcement that ECO-FILTRO would be donating an eco-filter for each classroom. An incredibly generous and welcomed gift, as the school was without a source of clean drinking water!

I always walk away from such afternoons feeling recharged and buoyant with optimism. It’s my hope through our various teachings on nutrition, gardening, clean water and yoga that we have started to infuse ideas on the importance of nature and how we are inextricably linked.

With climate change becoming a glaringly major issue, it seems that developing a deeper self-awareness of our relationship with nature, through the onset of early education, is necessary to foster a sustainable environment and a healthier planet. Our health depends on it. Teaching children we are not external to our environment but in fact a living part of it illuminates how everything that occurs within nature does indeed closely affect us.

What does access to nutrition and health education mean for students in rural Chacaya, Guatemala? Chacaya is a remote indigenous village of less than 1,000 people on the shores of Lake Atitlan. The students in Chacaya Middle School had the opportunity to take part in a Comida Vida workshop last week to explore those questions in their community.

Comida Vida is JUSTA Collective‘s Holistic Health program with the mission to inspire reconnection with traditional foods and nutrition awareness in Lake Atitlan communities. Guest speaker and Guatemalan nutrition expert, Pedro Rodríguez, joined JUSTA Collective at Chacaya Middle School to discus “What does nutrition mean to you?” Students spent the afternoon participating in interactive simulations and thought-provoking discussions on practical ways to make healthier food choices.

Buy local, think global. Engaging students in conversations about supporting local produce. Where does the money go when you buy foods at the market from local vendors instead of packaged foods from a grocery chain?

Students were given 5 quetzals, equivalent of about 70 cents, to go shopping in our simulated market. Learning practical ways to make healthy purchasing decisions. What would you buy?

Our drink selection during the simulated market. If carbonated sodas or sugary juices are the only options, how do we find a better health alternative?

What does it really mean to “eat the rainbow?” Highlighting the nutritional benefits of incorporating a array of colors into your diet. Eating foods from each color category keeps you healthy!

What does it mean when a product advertises “Vitamin C?” Learning to read the ingredients list to see what’s really inside!

Students try delicious Limonada con Chan (chia seeds) during JUSTA’s Comida Vida Workshop. After talking about the many nutritional advantages of adding Chia to your diet, students asked to keep the seeds to plant at home. Since chia seeds are a traditional and local food to Guatemala, we are all excited to grow and eat more!

Nutritious alternatives to packaged snack foods. How about nutrient-packed avocado on a tostada and fresh sandilla (watermelon)? Cheaper than a packet of cookies and far more delicious!

Ending the day with full bellies and smiles. Thank you to Pedro Rodríguez and the students of Chacaya Middle School for another delicious day of food learning!